The Crystal Throne (comic story)

The Crystal Throne
Main character(s):	Vastra, Jenny, Strax
Main enemy:	Cornelia Basildon-Stone
Main setting:	London, 1890s
Key crew
Editor:	Tom Spilsbury, Peter Ware
Writer:	Scott Gray
Artist:	David A Roach
Colourist:	James Offredi
Letterer:	Roger Langridge
Release details
Printed in:	DWM 475-476
Release date:	26 June - 24 July 2014
Cover date:	August 2014-September 2014
Format:	Comic, 2 parts
DWM comic stories
← Previous	The Blood of Azrael
Next →	The Eye of Torment
DWM backup comic stories
← Previous	Character Assassin

The Crystal Throne was a two-part Doctor Who Magazine comic story published in 2014. It was printed in DWM 475 and 476. It did not feature the Doctor, but instead focused on the Paternoster Gang.

Summary

Part one: The Crystal Throne

Silas Ruckford plans on destroying Buckingham Palace with the help of dynamite. However, Madame Vastra catches up with his carriage and pushes the man out of the vehicle, not bothering to see whether he survives. Instead of jumping off the dynamite-filled carriage as Jenny suggests, Vastra steers it away from the people nearby, just barely escaping the carriage as it explodes.

Ruckford is not dead, but before he can do anything else, Strax punches him. Before Vastra can question him, however, Ruckford consumes a poisonous pill, before muttering that Queen Victoria will fall. Vastra believes that Ruckford, who suffered severe mental difficulties, was not simply acting on his own will; someone manipulated him into acting as a weapon.

After measuring its oxide levels, Vastra realises that the soil on Ruckford's boot appears to be from the Equatorial region - odd, considering Ruckford had been in England for months. Jenny points out a newspaper article focusing on a Brazilian rainforest exhibit at the Central Palace, which could explain the apparently Equatorial soil.

The Paternoster Gang decides to investigate the Palace, which Vastra enjoys due to its similarities to the world she grew up in. Lady Cornelia Basildon-Stone, the woman who came up with the exhibit idea, speaks of her fascination with nature, including her theory that only the strongest beings could and should survive in the world; however, she makes no comment on Vastra's nonhuman appearance. Vastra is convinced that Lady Cornelia was behind Ruckford's acts.

Meanwhile, Strax meets Lady Cornelia's Sikh servant Ajeeth, while Jenny meets the young Tommy Corrigan who works at the greenhouse. The latter boy notes the oddity of Lady Cornelia's personality; she recently removed and replaced the glass on the greenhouse's ceiling for no apparent reason. This cements Vastra's suspicions about the Lady, though Inspector Stringer believes Vastra's thoughts to be false.

Along with Tommy, the Paternoster Gang returns to the Palace that night, pondering Lady Cornelia's intentions. Jenny, Strax and Tommy break into the Palace for additional information, while Vastra investigates its exterior.

Jenny, Strax and Tommy spot Ajeeth ordering the policemen present to assemble. He unleashes some sort of gas, turning them into insectoids loyal to their Queen...

Part two: The New British Empire

to be added

Characters

• Silas Ruckford
• Madame Vastra
• Jenny Flint
• Strax
• Inspector George Duncan Stringer
• Wilson
• Carter
• Lady Cornelia Basildon-Stone
• Ajeeth
• Tommy Corrigan
• Silurian scientist

References

• Strax says he is almost thirteen years old, the same age as Tommy.
• A genetic splicer is a device capable of creating new lifeforms by extracting the essence of one creature and merging it with another.
• Strax mentions neutrino badgers.

Notes

• This story served as a two-month filler to bridge the gap in the changeover between Doctors.
• This was the first appearance of the Paternoster Gang in comic strip form. They later appeared in The Daft Dimension, while Strax appeared in Sonic Sleuth and Time Gentlemen, Please!, but without Vastra and Jenny.
• Certain references made by Strax towards the Sikh Ajeeth's turban led to a reader's letter of complaint being published in DWM 478, followed by an apology by editor Tom Spilsbury. When the story was reprinted in the graphic novel The Eye of Torment, the dialogue for the scenes between Strax and Ajeeth was changed.

Continuity

• Vastra uses the red setting on the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to make the ceiling of the greenhouse explode. River Song previously told the Tenth Doctor that his future screwdriver would have a red setting in TV: Forest of the Dead and the Eleventh Doctor's screwdriver had a red setting by the time of TV: Cold War.
• Tommy thanks Strax for a glass of milk, to which Strax proudly replies he made it himself. Strax previously stated he had gene-spliced himself for all types of nursing duties and could produce magnificent amounts of lactic fluid. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)